Liam Fox: We have no plan to retake the Falklands. (Because we don't plan to lose them)

Liam Fox is in the Commons talking about the Anglo-French defence deal struck today.

Thomas Docherty, a Labour MP, has just asked a well-worn question about Britain's ability to defend the Falkland Islands in future. After all, we're not going to have a working aircraft carrier until 2020, and will even then frequently have to rely on a French carrier when ours is in dock for maintenance.

As I say, it's a familiar question, and Dr Fox is well used to answering it. Indeed, he started in the usual way. “The defence of the Falklands depends on our ability to deter,” he said, pointing out that Tornado fighter-bombers and hunter-killer subs are on hand to deter any future Argentine agression.

But then he went further, and said this:

“There are those who ask, ‘Do we have a plan to retake the Falklands?’ No more than we have a plan to retake Kent, because we have no intention of losing it.”

Hmm. I see the point he's making there. But I wonder, given how excited people can get about the Falklands, whether it was wholly prudent to suggest that Britain has no plan for retaking the Falklands…